The lonely liberation theology of Benedict XVI

And was'nt it Benedict, then Ratzinger who whispered in the ear of our Polish Pope that what Oscar Romeros was into was communism? St. Oscar must be turning in his grave. The whole Idea of an apolitical stance vis a vis real
liberation theology is nonsense. You are either in the real world or you are not. You cannot reduce action to innefective mumbling about Christs Message,
The call is to action, it is not to any Benedictine crying out. Sadly it was the putdown in public by the Pope himself, certainly no Benedictine virtue, which messaged the right wingers that Oscar had no value to the Pope.
South American countries have been invigorated by the action of the real
Liberation Theology not the erzats version you want to attach to Benedict.
They are now taking their rightful place on the World Stage.
You really do excel in whitewash John. The spectacles happen, like a circus
event, then its back to Rome and the world gets on with its business, while
the Official Church continues to fail in its responsibility to its own.
I pray that his sesarsch for a purer smaller church will be successful. This
will allow us Christians the freedom of the Gospel.
Christ was all about action, as his eventual arrest and disposal by the
powers that were testify.
All events are subject to interpretation but whitewash always shows bright
and clean until the rain and the mold changes the hue.
God bless, I welcome the information but please don't insult our intelligence.
TomC

Sorry Mr. Allen, but the spin in your post is dead wrong.

The pope may SAY that in Africa but he DOES NOT DO that in the Latin nations, and likely not in Africa, and DEFINITELY NOT IN America!!! For this pope and JPII, Liberation Theology is very akin to Marxism/Communism/Socialism. Wherever it starts they shortly stop it and it's promulgators and followers. They see it as competition to their institutional mindset and as anti-Capitalism. Certainly, it is anti-predatory Capitalism as dished up by the popes friends in the very WASP-ish Reagan/Ayn Rand Republican party that has given us two very deadly and very costly wars and one, now worldwide, Trickle-down Economic crisis that supports only the Super Rich, the VERY VERY few.

These two popes are very responsible for turning America into a dumbed down Fascist nation. In a short while America will become a Fascist Theocracy. There is no room for fundamentalism in the world, but both religious fundamentalism and economic fundamentalism are "consuming" America. In the near future we will have more wars and ever expanding poverty, all at the doings of the RCC papacy. These two popes are using Fatima to give ordinary middle class people and the poor a thumpin' in order to keep them subservient and he and his Republican cohorts in positions of near total control over the peoples of North and South America. These two popes have been doing it ever since JPII was elected.

Does poverty really equal chastity and obedience??? I think NOT. It is nothing but a soul stealing, spirit stealing vampire-like predatory strategy to keep the very few Super Rich and the popes in power. IOW, the pope is just another Republican politician like George W. Bush, of the infamous Bush family.

To prove my point, just elect another Bush or any Republican and watch what happens. In fact, I hope the pope does put another Repub in the WH. Then just maybe the American people will finally understand what the papacy, the hierarchs and the Republicans are really all about. Namely, MONEY and POWER!!! They are all incredibly short-sighted, narrow-minded and self-serving narcissists. they are people who are all drunk on power.

No one is more secularist than the pope and his Republican friends. We have all have been watching this ever since JPII hooked-up with the Republican party and engaged in a mentally incestuous and mutually self-serving relationship that has done enormous harm to America and much of the world. It seems that the only beneficiaries of this relationship are China, Russia, the Republicans, the pope and hierarchs and the Super Rich. Now we are all paying the price for that conflation of greed and evil.

That's a shame, Jesus was NOT any of those things and did none of those things.

We need a Latin American Pope for Liberation Theology; BXVI's version is totally hierarchical.

Benedict's criticism of "tea-party" ideology is appreciated. I hope his hierarchical "children" are listening - "The pontiff also took yet another swipe at neo-con ideologies."

Not being very knowledgeable about liberation theology I really cannot comment on his similarity/difference, but I can give my opinion about what I believe about "identifying...with the poor". Benedict seems to be very "augustinian" about his "poor". I was going to write "use of" and then realized that is the very probelm I have with his notion. I would characterize it as augustinian: utilitarian. Taking Allen's words, it is as if the poor are "useful": “... and the poor deserve respect because “through them, God shows us the way to Heaven”". One would understand Benedict to be "using" the poor as a way, a tool, to glory. I would suggest that Jesus "is" the poor, or maybe better still, the poor are the hungry absence of Jesus, the circulation starved bit of the mystical body that without the benefit of the fullness of health are ill and needy. As long, and to the extent that any human being is hungry, sick, suffering, oppressed, lacks the basic essentials that will open him/her to Jesus, we, the mired in history body of Christ suffers, is incomlete.

Over and over again, it seems that if Benedict invents it, with his platonic detachment then it is okay. If it is blood and guts, here and now in the world it is relativist, secularist, proportionalist, and on and on....

Given his overt disdain for real creation-based theology and its "people" I find it difficult to give him credit for what is, maybe, his due.

Spin and more Spin is what John brings. Too bad he is not more interested in truthful reporting! Benedict and Liberation Theology are 180 degrees apart, it has always been that way. Translates out to the problematic part of Benedict, he has an unfortunate Fascist mind set that makes him diametrically opposed to the poor and a society that Jesus told us about in His Sermon on the Mount. Use all the spin you want John but Benedict is part of the 1% with a Vatican Bank run by mafia and a deaf ear to the needs of leadership to improve in its banking and sex scandals. What a shame to have such a man lead such a big religion. Well one thing certain this Religion continues to shed so many of its better and more spiritual parts because of a leadership that has shown little to no integrity.

Spin, Spin, Spin, it will not bring integrity or truth to this leadership. What a shame and sham.

FORGET POPE'S SPEECHS ........... Thanks, John, for you stalwart effort.

The pope speaks prophetically against greed, poverty and war in Africa, which is good if it isn't just papal doublespeak. Yet, John, is it not just mere double speak? While he utters pious platitudes in Africa, his subordinate US bishops and DC papal nuncio are diligently working on an opposite agenda with the pope's blessing in the US.

The US bishops are working to elect a Republican candidate as US president next November. These candidates' positions include lower taxes on the Catholic 1%, less govenrnmental regulation of big banks and now war with Iran.

Who is the real pope, John? The African prophet for the poor or the American lobbyist for the wealthy? You may be able to find out if you ask him on the return flight from Africa the questions you and other journalists failed to ask him on the incoming flight.

As an unaccountable monarch, the pope does not have to hold press conferences, which is why he almost never does. If, as he did on the incoming flight, he holds one on the return flight, I hope you and your journalist colleagues will earn your keep and ask him some real questions and press for some real answers.

If the pope again just offers another monologue of papal platitudes, let us hope that you and your colleagues show some journalistic integrity and refuse to participate further in another papal propaganda ploy.

For more information on some real questions the pope should answer, please note the NCR comment and related cross links under the comment heading, "Is That All There Is?" , accessible by clicking on at:

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/transcript-papal-plane

Benedict's "liberation theology" is quite definitely unique.

It appears to presume that one can preach a justice to the world at large that one does not practice in one's own institution--in the institution preaching and exemplifying justice to the world at large.

This bad-parenting approach to teaching (do as I say, not as I do) takes leave of much conventional wisdom which observes that we teach most effectively by living what we teach. Preach the gospel at all times, Francis told his followers. And when necessary, use words.

This approach also belies the most fundamental principle of all about Catholic ecclesiology: namely, that the church is called first and foremost to be a sacramental sign of God's all-inclusive, redemptive love in the world. When the church fails to apply the norms of justice it proclaims to the world in its own internal life, people will stop listening.

As well they ought.

Wow, how dishonest can you get. What B16 stands for is not liberation theology. It is not even close to that. Your sad attempt to give "Liberation Theology" credentials by saying B16 supports a version of it falls flat in face of the Truth. He has fought that false ideology for the last 30 years head on. This is why Oscar Romero will never be canonized a saint. The Liberation Theology crowd rejects Christ first and foremost as a Saviour and would rather characterize Him as a temporal economic bread winner to suit their socialist cravings for class warfare. NCR is a disgusting publication. You people poison Catholic minds.

"However Benedict’s liberation theology takes shape in Africa or other parts of the world, bringing it into focus at least has the virtue of rendering his various messages throughout this three-day journey consistent: Defend the poor, yes, but using the spiritual arsenal of the church."

May I suggest a way to focus on this liberation theology "using the spiritual arsenal of the church"?
The key to the "New Evangelization" is: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH. Or, to use the words of Pope Paul V1: "Modern people listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are Witnesses."
For an example, the following should apply to our Catholic Schools:
A "preferential option for the poor" should be maintained in our Catholic
Schools. If we find that we cannot afford to keep our schools open to the
poor, the schools should be closed and the resources used for something else which can be kept open to the poor. We cannot allow our Church to become a church primarily for the middle-class and rich while throwing a bone to the poor. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the middle-class and rich fend for themselves.
Practically speaking, the Catholic Schools must close and the resources used for "Confraternity of Christian Doctrine" and other programs which can be kept open to the poor. Remember, the Church managed without Catholic Schools for centuries. We can get along without them today. The essential factor is to cultivate enough Faith to act in the Gospel Tradition. THE POOR GET PRIORITY. The rich and middle-class are welcome too. But the poor come first.

They used to say that "grace builds on nature." Putting the supernatural order first strikes me as a form of Catholic fundamentalism. If society must wait for individual transformation, then the church does not need to change until all or many of its members do. It leads by following. This is really depressing. There is a Pelagian tinge to this thinking: you have to change on your own without any help being expected from institutions. Think of what this would mean for civil rights. Luckily there were political leaders willing to demand that laws be changed even before the whole society was ready or willing to go along with them. To say that no one (including the church) can dictate a change empowers the status quo. In fact, the church does dictate changes and acceptable positions all the time. Look at the newly imposed liturgy, or the church's willingness to remove dissident bishops, or deny public communion to Catholic politicians in the US (and maybe elsewhere). If this is the message that the Pope really did deliver, it's a sad statement of retrenchment.

John, your blog “The lonely liberation theology of Benedict XVI| has so much to say that I find it hard to begin.

1) You say: (“Liberation theology” usually refers to a progressive theological movement pioneered in Latin America in the 1960s and 70s, which put the church on the side of the poor in their political struggles, and which drew both praise and rebuke from the future pope while he was the Vatican’s doctrinal czar.)”.
2) NO John, the Doctrinal czar was Pope J.P.II. Ratzinger was the TOMAS TORQUEMADA OF THE VATICAN.
3) You say: “Liberation theology ... puts the church on the side of the poor in their political struggles” .
4) NO John, Liberation Theology teaches us - today’s “99%” to use the Gospel of Jesus to discover that the Abbá Father of Jesus IS ON THE SIDE OF THE POOR, and that the message of the activity of Jesus is to follow HIS LIFE PLAN OF ACTION to change our world into the “THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH JUST AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”: to work to bring about that “other possible society” that “other possible world”, so unlike what we have made for ourselves in today’s world, where every 4 seconds one of our sisters or brothers dies of hunger, where we kill millions of people in wars over petroleum or jockeying for strategic global positions, just as by our greed we nonchalantly keep on destroying the future for our grandchildren, our own Dear Mother Earth.

John, you write: “in Benin’s capital, before some 40,000 wildly enthusiastic, dancing and singing locals (with another 40,000 outside) he (Benedict XVI ) said “Jesus wanted to identify himself with the poor” and the poor deserve respect because “through them, God shows us the way to Heaven.”

Those 80,000 enthusiastic persons and the other millions who just said“OH,HUH?” are much more worried about eating today, education today, health care today, leisure today, jobs today, equal distribution today of the wealth of their countries, and even today showing a loving tender care for their dear Pachamama, Mother Earth, or however they say it in their language, just as Jesus said and did. Padre Leonardo Boff wrote “Jesus was so perfectly human he just had to be divine”, (and he of course was also silenced by Ratzinger when head of the Holy Office).

John, you wrote what you saw and heard. Many of us don’t quibble about that. We question: “WHY THE CHURCH EXISTS” and if it really is part of God’s plan, then how can we get it to help us push along the cart of the Kingdom of God here and today.

Justiniano de Managua el 20 de nov. 2011

In his effort to not sound too liberal( to please conservatives), and to not sound too conservative ( to please liberals), he is pleasing no one. He just looks like someone who cannot make up his mind. Even if you don't agree with someone, when they make a decision and stick with it, you know exactly where they stand.

To paraphrase the scripture: Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no, anything else is from the evil one.

The mission of the Church should be to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. If you read the Gospels, especially Matthew 25, you will read again and again, Jesus insructing us to help the poor. This so called "Gospel of prosperity" is a load of horse manure, and nothing more than using religion as cover for screwing the poor. Sticking it to the poor and pretending to be a "Good Catholic" is the worst kind of Cafeteria Catholicism.

I hope Pope Benedict preaches the real Gospel and stands up for the poor.
Note to George Weigel and the other Trad Cafeteria Catholics: you don't speak for God, not one bit.

This was an excellent syntheses of Pope Benedict's take on liberation theology...which indeed seems like a compassionate and balanced approach. Thank you for your fine and diligent work, Mr. Allen!

Yeah, right. The Church blocked the World Health Organization from promoting birth control for poor women in Africa but the Pope says we need to change the world and support the poor NOT BY LOBBYING OR WORKING WITH POLITICAL SYSTEMS but by helping love for Christ grow in human hearts. Sounds wonderful. When does he plan to get his minions in line to begin?

It seems that the Holy Father has clarified this in Africa Munus, 17

The task we have to set for ourselves is not an easy one, situated as it is somewhere between immediate engagement in politics – which lies outside the Church’s direct competence – and the potential for withdrawal or evasion present in a theological and spiritual speculation which could serve as an escape from concrete historical responsibility.

God Bless

Why can't someone write the Pope's speeches in clear, concise and unambiguous English?
It seems to me that he limits politics to the pursuit of power, whereas in many countries to welcome a stranger (a refugee), to clothe a naked person (an Aboriginal), to feed the hungry (a homeless youth), to give drink to the thirsty (an isolated pensioner) are political acts.

"When Benedict talks about defense of the poor, is he engaging in pious rhetoric without any real-world bite?"

Yes. The only "bite" is sound bite.

"This “Benedictine” form of liberation theology is rooted in three basic convictions."

This is not the truly Benedictine expression of Liberation Theology, codified over 1500 years ago in our Rule For Monks, which commands the poor received as Christ, with shelter and generosity and begging their blessing.

For all things authentically Benedictine, please consult NCR Senior Correspondent and past President of US Benedictine PRioresses, tyhe very Reverend Sister Joan Chittister OSB, including her various commentaries of our Rule, the latest titled
"The Radical Christian Life: A Year with Saint Benedict"
and also the soon coming
"Following the Path: The Search for a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Joy"

Her other experienced, wise and compassionate commentaries upon our Rule include
"The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century (Spiritual Legacy Series)"
"Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today"
and, if you can still find it
"Living The Rule Today: A Series of Conferences on the Rule of Benedict"

Ratzinger on the other hand is remembered for destroying our beloved Franciscan Friar Boff who embraced poverty as the charism of his order, and got axed for it. See former NCR correspondent Harvey Cox's account in "The Silencing of Leonardo Boff: The Vatican and the Future of World Christianity" and the similar unholy exile fates of so many other good and faithful theologians destroyed under this pontiff prior to this pontificate for embracing the poor as Jesus commands.

Anyone else hear the Gospel today? We all sleeping? Clint?

Gospel, Mt 25:31-46

31 'When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory.

32 All nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats.

33 He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.

34 Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.

35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome,

36 lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."

37 Then the upright will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

38 When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you?

39 When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?"

40 And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."

I find some of the comments and assessments in this writing rather sad. In his obvious relationship with God, I don't believe Pope Benedict XVI is lonely at all. He is not merely expressing his own observances and attitudes to the lack of human dignity in so many lives. He is speaking the inner urge of the Holy Spirit that overcomes all people with the gift of prophecy. He's just a bigger prophet than most of us. However, prophecy seems to be coming through in many areas, just read Alexander McCall-Smith and other writers with some staying power.
Popular cultures of today, and they infiltrate the Church peoples as well, fail to or are afraid to absorb Christ's message and the fact that he has sovereignty over the whole of creation.
A journey in faith constantly trying to aim for discipleship is an adventure greater than any physical or mental achievements that are constant worship areas today. Goodness is satirised, evil is considered normal human behaviour, and waste of all resources is economics. Get wise! Be intelligent! God offers us the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit to daily work with his promises. Dare we ignore them? Listen carefully to Benedict XVI he's taking the world on a life journey.

One may simply consider this weekend's gospel reading as a basis for any Christian to defend the poor, regardless of any ensuing controversy, at least as I read it. Matt. 25, 31-46.

Benedict has a softer, less dogmatic tone which gives me hope that he will return to the man he was during Vatican ll.

'“There are too many scandals and injustices, too much corruption and greed, too many errors and lies, too much violence which leads to misery and death,” he said.'

That sounds like a good description of the present catholic church to me.

Read the preface to Benedict's Introduction to Christianity...

Perhaps another "source" of Pope Benedict's loneliness vis a vis LIBERATION THEOLOGY in AFRICA, would be the HATCHET JOB that Cardinal Ratzinger did on so many liberation theologians in SOUTH AMERICA?
http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/ratzinger/liberationtheol.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_df84lt.htm

Re: AFRICAE MUNUS
http://www.news.va/en/news/signing-of-apostolic-exhortation-africae-munus
http://www.news.va/en/news/key-ideas-and-principal-themes-of-africae-munus
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_exhortations/docume...

My understanding of the controversy of Liberation Theology is not that it put the Church on the side of the poor, but that it adopted too much Marxist ideology. The Church has always taught solidarity with the poor. It appears to me that Liberation Theology was teaching that the traditional Christian ministry of corporal and spiritual works of mercy was not enough, but that the Church needed to be involved in political revolution. Pope Benedict is preaching Liberation Theology, except without the Liberation Theology part. It's just plain old ministry to the poor.

John - "•The supernatural realm is the deepest and most “real” level of existence. Material forms of reality, including economic and political structures, are fundamentally conditioned by the quality of humanity’s relationship with God"
Amen - I think this preceisely sums up the root of the problems pleaging the world today. Great piece John!

You've got to be joking! Please don't equate Pope Benedict's Catholic Social Justice with the Marxist philosophy of liberation theology...sounds like you are trying to make liberation theology palatable to the "masses".

Everything of Vatican II is lonely because of Benedict. He, following the man who arranged his succession by stacking the Cardinal College, has completed the job of totally eliminating, destroying, Vatican II. Let's just hope when Benedict joins John Paul in the Vatican's lower chambers that the next "man" calls another council after first declaring the Council of Trent null and void. Let's grow up! Let's demand respect and recognition from this clericalism of men! Let's eliminate the whole notion of hierarchy. It is centuries past the time when the lay People of God be given full and equal participation in all church matters. John Paul II and Benedict have destroyed the simple message of honesty and goodness proclaimed by Jesus in favor of their royal, monarchical dictatorship over a church that is dying as fast as the likes of John Paul II and Benedict. The situation is very, very, very bad!

How does the poor show us the way to heaven? By being hungry, uneducated, sick, and homeless? It's not God's idea of a good time to see people writhing around in poverty, but it seems to make B16 feel good. This guy is totally out of touch.

This explanation of B XVI's approach to liberation theology or thinking and the person's personal and individual disposition to act as a disciple of Christ by serving others reminds me of the difference between the West and East approach to Christian unity.

The West (seeming anxious) wants everyone to be on the same page to begin to consider unity; the East is willing to trust the Spirit and welcome people of differing beliefs to dialogue.

Vatican II chose the path of Eastern Christianity in it's approach to the modern world but Benedict's anxiety, as explained here, and as it seems to me, is firmly back in the pre-Vatican mode, or approach to being Christian in the modern world.

The crisis of faith is in full sail indeed. Fear before faith ...

Benedict’s theology of individual liberation

In his uncompromising rejection of “liberation theology,” has not Benedict XVI also cut himself off from the long tradition of Catholic communitarian Social thought? Benedict emphasizes individual conversion as the irreplaceable foundation for improving society. He urges Christians to focus on conversion through a personal relationship with Jesus. Without this individual transformation, Benedict sees no hope for ameliorating the massive human sufferings caused by our defective social, economic and political systems.

Benedict’s message parallels that of many American evangelicals. We daily hear that the most efficacious means for repairing the broken US political and economic system is to take Jesus as our Savior.

For 2000 years, Christians have weighed the alternative strategies of pietism and worldly engagement. One would have hoped that Benedict might have turned his stellar analytical intelligence to mine the richness of the communitarian tradition of Catholic social thought. One would have hoped that he would have reflected on the utter failure of Christian pietism to block the triumph of Nazism in his German homeland.

But perhaps, Benedict has been persuaded by Thomas Aquinas’ caution that all human intellectualizing is but straw. In a world with no easy answers or solutions, pietism (spiritual individualism) can provide comfort and solace—but certainly not guidance.

Liberation Theology was crushed in Latin America for three reasons:

1. It tried to break the eternal "marriage" of all Christian churches with the economic, political and military powers of this world, predominant since the 8th Century.

2. Theology has been developed for centuries only by blonde Europeans. How can a peruvian "cholo" priest like Father Gustavo Gutierrez from an ex colony (Peru) pretend to create a new theology ?

3 The Church loves to help the poor, but they should never be allowed to be important actors within the Church or in any "Christian" society: that would be a Marxism ghost.

Why were not the crimes of some priests against children crushed with the same energy ?

The Church needs desperately another St. Francis of Asis.

To be clear, Pope Benedict does NOT espouse "Liberation Theology" not should he ever support it. True Catholic Social Teaching is NOT supported by Liberation Theology. Justice, yes... Supernatural transcends material, yes... Individual transformation, yes etc. However, to conclude "Liberation Theology" is te answer is erroneous at best, heretical at worst.

Liberation Theology does not support the Mission of the Church nor Good News of the Gospel. I have seen its destructive impact on theology and the people it serves to help.

An Orthodox understanding of theology is at odds with nearly all aspects of "Liberation Theology".

God bless